Delnor-community Plans To Sell Illinois 25 Campus

June 15, 1994|By Wayne Baker.

St. Charles — More than a year after the state rejected its plans to operate a long-term physical rehabilitation center, Delnor-Community Hospital is planning to sell its 8-acre campus on Illinois Highway 25 where the facility would have been housed.

The board of the St. Charles Center for Physical Rehabilitation, a joint venture between Delnor-Community and the Wheaton-based Marianjoy Rehabilitation Clinic that formed in July 1991 to operate the facility, announced the planned sale last week.

Delnor-Community President Craig Livermore said the decision to sell the facility was reached after the two organizations debated unsuccessfully over what to do with the 93,000 square feet of former hospital space.

"Our original intention to develop long-term, inpatient rehabilitation services will go unrealized," Livermore said. "The joint venture searched but could not find within our respective organizations a way to put the facility to good use."

The center opened in December 1991 for limited outpatient services after Delnor-Community consolidated its operations and moved into its new campus on Randall Road in Geneva.

After the move, Delnor-Community planned to sell its former downtown Geneva hospital for redevelopment, which it was able to do last year to local developer Kent Shodeen, but retain ownership of the St. Charles campus under the joint venture with Marianjoy.

But the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board issued an intent-to-deny in December 1992 on a certificate of need for the proposed rehabilitation center, saying the state already has enough space available for long-term medical care.

The property, located about a half-mile north of Illinois Highway 64, is zoned for residential use with a special permit for health care purposes.